CMOS design of the tree arbiter element

摘要

An asynchronous arbiter dynamically allocates a resource innresponse to requests from processes. Glitch-free operation when twonrequests arrive concurrently is possible in MOS technologies. Multiwaynarbitration using a request-grant-release-acknowledge protocol can benachieved by connecting together two-way arbiters (mutual exclusion andntree arbiter elements). We have devised a fast and compact design fornthe tree arbiter element which offers eager forward-propagation ofnrequests. It compares favorably with a well-known design in whichnrequest propagation must wait for arbitration to complete. Our analysisnand simulations also suggest that no performance improvement will benobtained by incorporating eager acknowledgment of releases. All of thendesigns considered in this paper are speed-independent, a formalnproperty of a network of elements which can be taken as a positivenindication of their robustness